UC Berkeley Web Feature

BERKELEY – To help develop a new generation of investigative reporters in an era of cutbacks at major news organizations, UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism has established three post-graduate fellowships in investigative reporting.

Funded by the Sandler Family Supporting Foundation, the Gruber Family Foundation, Scott and Jennifer Fearon, and David Einhorn, the fellowships will be awarded this coming academic year. They are open to all working journalists, but preference will be given to graduates of UC Berkeley's master's program in journalism.

Applicants will be chosen based on their qualifications as well as their potential, and on the proposed areas of investigation they intend to pursue during the yearlong program. There are no educational prerequisites. Fellowships will be administered by the school's Investigative Reporting Program and the program's advisory board. The board is comprised of representatives from some of the nation's top media outlets.

"With the economics of major news organizations deteriorating," said Lowell Bergman, the professor in charge of the Investigative Reporting Program, "this kind of public interest journalism involving time-consuming investigative work is endangered as never before. These fellowships will provide both a refuge and a base of operations for a new generation of investigative reporters."

Bergman said that funding for the fellowships has been secured through the 2008-09 academic year.

He explained that, in the coming year, the graduate program in investigative reporting will be focused on public and corporate corruption as well as on investigations into the criminal justice system. Applicants are urged to present proposed areas of inquiry within this broad subject area.

Fellows will be provided with office space, phones and basic expenses. Their base will be the Investigative Reporting Program offices at 2481 Hearst Ave. in Berkeley, space provided by the Reva and David Logan Foundation.

In addition to regular interaction with the faculty of the journalism school and the instructors in investigative reporting, the fellows will participate in a weekly seminar in investigative reporting taught by Bergman and Robert Gunnison, the journalism school's director of school affairs.

Fellows will be salaried employees of the University of California with the job classification of staff research associate II and with an annual salary of approximately $45,000, with health benefits. They also will be able to audit UC Berkeley classes and use campus research facilities.The fellowships have been established to augment an endowment created by the Reva and David Logan Foundation that funds a permanent program in investigative reporting at the journalism school. That endowment and related programs and scholarships are also funded by gifts from Richard and Diane Scruggs, Robert Bishop, Rita and Ian Isaacs, the Gruber Family Foundation and the Gladys P. & Alfredo I. Rodriguez Fund.

The deadline for fellowship applications for the academic year 2007-2008 is June 25. This year's recipients will be announced on July 20. The fellows' year-long tenure will begin on Aug. 27.